A Rhetorical Recuperation of Public Sphere Theory in a Digital Age
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ABSTRACT SWIFT, JEFFREY CHARLES. Flash Publics: A Rhetorical Recuperation of Public Sphere Theory in a Digital Age. (Under the direction of Dr. Carolyn R. Miller). This dissertation explores the idea of “flash publics” as a useful model for interrogating the roles and practices of rhetoric in the digital age. When it comes to a public sphere, digital rhetoric has the potential to be more about community organizing than Habermasian rational persuasion. In this sense, my project is less interested in how movements use symbolic messages to persuade audiences, but is instead concerned with how citizens use new communication technologies to “flash” themselves into political relevance and existence, creating an ethic of “we weren’t here yesterday and we won’t be here tomorrow, but we still matter today.” This dissertation argues that Habermas’s idea of the public sphere is again relevant, even after significant practical and theoretical postmodern critiques, in an age of the digital. To demonstrate this renewed appropriateness, I locate a digitally appropriate theoretical frame, informed by a refocusing and recuperation of public sphere theory. This project explores flash publics through the lens of a reanimated public sphere ideal based on natural evolutions of Habermas’ ideas, and proposes three characteristics of public spheres: they are agonistic, compositional, and procedural. I explore this rhetorical reconceptualization of the public sphere as it is understood through flash publics—digitally augmented, flexible, and for the most part passive but ultimately activist, collectives of democratic engagement. These flash publics build networks that are then ready to take action when the time is right. Flash Publics: A Rhetorical Recuperation of Public Sphere Theory in a Digital Age by Jeffrey Charles Swift is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. May 2014 Flash Publics: A Rhetorical Recuperation of Public Sphere Theory in a Digital Age by Jeffrey Charles Swift A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of North Carolina State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Communication, Rhetoric, & Digital Media Raleigh, North Carolina 2014 APPROVED BY: _______________________________ ______________________________ Dr. Carolyn R. Miller Dr. Victoria Gallagher Committee Chair ________________________________ ________________________________ Dr. Matthew May Dr. David Rieder DEDICATION To Sheri, Michael, and Matthew. You wrote this more than you know. Also to my parents, Charles and Denise Swift, who have been writing this dissertation since my first paper in elementary school. And who are now old enough to have a son with a PhD. ii BIOGRAPHY Jeff entered Brigham Young University at age 16, graduating from there with a BA in English and an MA in Rhetoric and Composition. His research focuses include digital rhetoric, democratic theory, networked activism and deliberation, and community building. He has experience as digital consultant, having worked on two successful City Council campaigns in two different cities. He has also advised nonprofits on digital strategy, served as community organizer for a place-based social network, and done broad political consulting work. As a graduate student, he taught courses in first-year and advanced writing, argumentation and advocacy, digital satire, and persuasive writing. He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with his wife and two sons. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I want to thank the chair of my dissertation committee and founder of my doctoral degree program, Dr. Carolyn R. Miller. Her tireless guidance, abundant and always accurate marginalia, and theoretical steering have brought this project to where it is now. My committee, Dr. Matt May, Dr. Victoria Gallagher, and Dr. David Rieder, have provided friendship and mentoring alongside Dr. Miller’s that have shaped my dissertation experience in unmistakable and immeasurable ways. I also want to acknowledge North Carolina State University, and particularly the Communication, Rhetoric, & Digital Media program, for the institutional and academic support they so generously provide. This innovative program has enabled and prepared me to pursue a project that I care about and which has challenged me in productive scholarly directions. Finally, I am grateful for my family’s help and support in all its forms: reading drafts, listening to ideas, and playing racecars. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................................... vii Chapter 1 Democratic Engagement in a Digital Age .......................................................... 1 Vignette 1: The Arab Spring ................................................................................................................................ 1 Vignette 2: We the People .................................................................................................................................... 3 Vignette 3: The London Riots ............................................................................................................................. 4 A Shift in Democratic Engagement ..................................................................................................... 5 Augmented Engagement ........................................................................................................................ 7 Flash Publics ........................................................................................................................................... 12 The Public Sphere and its Critics ..................................................................................................... 16 Consensus ................................................................................................................................................................ 17 “The” PubliC Sphere ............................................................................................................................................. 20 Universal ProCedures .......................................................................................................................................... 23 Recuperating a Public Sphere Ideal ................................................................................................ 24 AgonistiC ................................................................................................................................................................... 25 Compositional ........................................................................................................................................................ 28 ProCedural ............................................................................................................................................................... 33 Chapter Previews .................................................................................................................................. 38 Chapter 2: Case Study of Flash PubliCs and the SOPA Protests ........................................................ 39 Chapter 3: Case Study of the Internet Defense League ........................................................................ 41 Chapter 4: Futures of Open SourCe DemocraCy ....................................................................................... 44 Conclusion: Rhetoric and Flash Publics ......................................................................................... 49 Chapter 2 Case Studies of Anti-SOPA “Flash Publics” ...................................................... 51 Reddit: Operation Pull Ryan .............................................................................................................. 61 AffordanCes of Deliberation on Reddit ........................................................................................................ 68 From Reddit Deliberations to Agonism ...................................................................................................... 74 The Wikipedia Blackout ..................................................................................................................... 79 AffordanCes of Deliberation on Wikipedia ................................................................................................ 84 From Wikipedia Deliberations to Agonism ............................................................................................... 87 Flash Publics in online public sphere interactions .................................................................... 88 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................... 93 Chapter 3 Compositional Flash Publics: The Reconstitutive Potential of the “Internet Defense League” and the “Action Network” ..................................................... 97 Compositional public sphere networks ......................................................................................... 99 Compositional digital activism ....................................................................................................... 103 Antifragile Activism .......................................................................................................................................... 105 Fragile activism .................................................................................................................................................